Inside
Over the past few years, it’s become vastly evident that Hyundai are in a league of their own when it comes to interior quality, choice of materials, fit-and-finish, and overall robust feel. The Venue is no different. Great ergonomics are a given and everything that can be seen and touched feels nice and well-put-together; and like money well spent. There is good front passenger room, but the rear knee-room could have been better. The steering wheel controls, buttons, and knobs on the centre console and the eight-inch touchscreen are all augmented by Blue Link — an AI-enabled personal assistant with as many as 33 connected features, including remote engine start/stop, climate control, door locks as well as interactive voice recognition, push maps, roadside assistance, and emergency assistance. The list of features includes keyless entry and go, a height-adjustable driver seat and a sliding front arm-rest. Other useful bits include a sunroof, cruise control, air purifier, rear a-c vents, cooled glove-box, wireless phone charging, and parking assist complete with a rear-view camera. The boot volume, too, at 350 litres is good. One annoyance I noticed is that the cabin air intake/recirculation function resets each time the car is powered off. This means that you get a dose of outside air and fumes each time until you remember to push the button for recirculation.
The XUV300 is also very well-equipped and offers generous passenger room inside. The quality of materials is excellent and the level of fit-and-finish is great, and not just for a Mahindra. It’s on course to being as good as some European offerings. In terms of equipment, it offers the most of the lot. There are automatic headlamps, wipers, and dual-zone climate control. The cabin and dashboard feel solid. The centre console seven-inch touchscreen isn’t the best in terms of haptic feel and response, but does its job. The climate control also has a memory function — something I’ve never seen in a car before to my memory — that remembers temperature, blower speed, and recirculation settings. There are a bunch of narrow, plastic-ey buttons that could have felt better but do the job nonetheless. While the rear seats offer excellent room, another shortcoming, to some extent, is that the occupants don’t have a seat-pocket but a trio of tight bands which can effectively hold all sorts of items albeit without much dignity, so to speak. The boot capacity is 257 litres, the least of the lot, but enough for many needs.
The EcoSport was and still is one of the better equipped compact cars for its price. There have been times when many prospects for the compact crossover segment considered their options to be the EcoSport or the Creta, though the latter is a larger car and sits a segment above. Everything’s there and it feels great, yet, somehow, the cabin feels a bit too snug. It’s not that I’m uncomfortable. Far from it. But it feels a little cosier. That said, ergos are good and the wheel and controls fall into place well. The equipment list is long and the significant bits include the nine-inch touchscreen, Ford’s SYNC3 smart connectivity, entertainment and information and the automatic headlamps, wipers, and climate control. The 352-litre boot is also the largest by some margin. When it comes to equipment, it’s a close call among all three so, buyers, a closer look and a longer test-drive are warranted. However, in terms of comfort and rear-seat space, the XUV has the advantage.
Safety
The ultimate safety aid is a dual-channel organic set-up inside the driver’s skull. However, since that seems to rarely be fully engaged, it involves carmakers installing a bunch of electronic assist systems to compensate and that also means a higher price-tag. Thus, everything from ABS, traction and stability control, a slew of active assistance features and, for the worst-case scenario, a full complement of airbags are on offer in all three.
The Venue gets stability control, ABS, and hill-assist, apart from automatic headlamps, ISOFIX child-seat anchors, and six airbags: two each front, side and curtain airbags. The XUV300 tops that with seven airbags — the same set-up as the Venue plus one driver knee airbag. Furthermore, it’s the only one with all four disc brakes. It gets ESP with roll-over mitigation, hill-start assist, heated wing-mirrors, tyre-pressure monitor (even for the spare), and ISOFIX child-seat anchors. The EcoSport gets a similar set-up as the Venue, with ABS, stability and traction control, hill launch assist as well as ISOFIX child-seat anchors. However, unlike the other two, the EcoSport gets ISOFIX only in the top two variants.
